Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future. H.G. Wells

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Chief Seattle

corkysru wrote:

frumpish wrote:

Thank you for supporting the Postal Service!

Yeah it's great to support a bad business model that damages most of my packages.

That is indeed a very special price for 25 cards and 2 pieces of board in a large box full of air.

As I predicted last summer, I'm sure this expansion will be cluttering the barguin bins at Essen this year for no more than 15 euros. Even if it isn't, I can wait until it is. The question is, have Queen Games learnt anything from this debacle?

...if BGG could get permission to throw out the box of air and just sell the cards, I'd happily pay about $20 including postage, but I think I'll pass on $53.37. (Suppose I could sell my Eclipse promo to fund it ...)

A thought of how to make people more happy in the future and make more money for the BGG store.

It looks like the store knows a good deal in advance when it will post new items to the store. So, do a poll 1-2 weeks before the new items are put online. The poll would consist of the top tier promos that everyone wants. Each person can just chime in for the ONE promo that they really want (or a short list could be made that people vote on).

This poll would just be looked at by someone from the BGG store a few days before all the promos are released in the store. At that time the top 3-5 promos that people voted on would be uploaded to the store for sale 24 hours before all the other items. These 3-5 early items would have their prices raised by 2 to 3 times what they would normally go for. The people that would moan about not being able to get stuff are also the same people that are likely to pay more for the items they really want. Thus they would have a 24 hour period to buy it at the increased price. This also benefits people in totally different time zones.

Not all the stock of the highest polled items would be released early on the site, just 1/3 or half of it. The rest of the stock (along with the polled stocked that went up that did not sell) would then 24 hours later be put on the site at the normal cheapo pricing.

Players that are willing to spend more can get their stuff while the average player doesn't have to worry about all these items being sold early (since some are kept back). And the BGG store can make some extra money.

I'm sure this could be improved upon or totally changed, but I think some scheme of this nature would be good for all involved.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals." Agent K. Oh my what he would think of people had he known about what the internet would become.....

pdahl wrote:

Big Bad Lex wrote:

The question is, have Queen Games learnt anything from this debacle?

Question is, will they learn the right thing from this?

Will they learn that expansions need to be small, in box size and price, or will they learn that expansions are too much bother and not do any of them any more?

Expansions don't need to be small in price or box but they need to be worth the price. See FFG. Half of their expansions cost 50-80% of the basegame. But most of these are COMPLETELY worth it. They pack a lot of stuff in the xpacs.

It looks like the store knows a good deal in advance when it will post new items to the store. So, do a poll 1-2 weeks before the new items are put online. The poll would consist of the top tier promos that everyone wants. Each person can just chime in for the ONE promo that they really want (or a short list could be made that people vote on).

Great, so then I can vote for something I don't actually want in order to avoid the item that I actually want getting marked up and having its availability at a reasonable price reduced.

Quote:

The people that would moan about not being able to get stuff are also the same people that are likely to pay more for the items they really want.

How do you know this?

Quote:

Not all the stock of the highest polled items would be released early on the site, just 1/3 or half of it. The rest of the stock (along with the polled stocked that went up that did not sell) would then 24 hours later be put on the site at the normal cheapo pricing.

So I simply refrain from buying the item while it's at the ridiculous price (I bought the Supernova expansion, but I would not have paid $20 for it), knowing that 1/2 to 2/3 of the stock will go on sale at a much cheaper price if I just wait for a couple of days. Then the normal-price inventory sells out even faster after it goes up (since there is less of it), and we get lots of whining about how BGG is price-gouging.

Releasing new promos on the same day as bgg site maintenance was probably not a great idea. When I came around to find out when the promos would be made available, the site was down.

On a related note (but perhaps off topic for this thread), the group that the maintenance page points to doesn't have any information on it. Wouldn't it be nice if some admin posted a message there indicating the expected duration of the maintenance?

Releasing new promos on the same day as bgg site maintenance was probably not a great idea. When I came around to find out when the promos would be made available, the site was down.

On a related note (but perhaps off topic for this thread), the group that the maintenance page points to doesn't have any information on it. Wouldn't it be nice if some admin posted a message there indicating the expected duration of the maintenance?

Same happened to me, which was why I didn't know about the ETA of 5pm. Ah well, such is life.

The production of Hoffman lenses is incumbent upon all true scientists

The tallest mountains, the darkest forests, the deepest deserts, the oldest books, there you will find the stone.

chuckhazard wrote:

Releasing new promos on the same day as bgg site maintenance was probably not a great idea. When I came around to find out when the promos would be made available, the site was down.

On a related note (but perhaps off topic for this thread), the group that the maintenance page points to doesn't have any information on it. Wouldn't it be nice if some admin posted a message there indicating the expected duration of the maintenance?

She announced this on the site like a week previous, and here on BGG earlier still. They are NOT perfect, but I think they do a pretty good job. They only had 400 of them and Eclipse is as hot as Agricola was when it came out, so a LOT of people were just not going to get this promo, even if they knew when it was coming out. I checked the site all day every 15 -20 min and when I did get it, I just got it, nothing else so that I would not be slowed down. I a was fortunate, other times with similar things (and not at the BGG store) I have been less fortunate.... Just the way the wind blows some days.

The production of Hoffman lenses is incumbent upon all true scientists

The tallest mountains, the darkest forests, the deepest deserts, the oldest books, there you will find the stone.

What people should do is ask the creators to release a pdf where they can print this expansion.

RGG did this with the Puerto Rico expansion. They later sold the expansion for $5. My copy was printed from the original pdf file and I still use it, even though I have the purchased one. Nothing was hurt either way. They are not trying to make money off this (giving it away instead), so it should not be too much of a concern to do it via pdf printing. Some people will want the "real thing" and other just to play it. The people who made it seem pretty cool, why not ask?

Releasing new promos on the same day as bgg site maintenance was probably not a great idea. When I came around to find out when the promos would be made available, the site was down.

On a related note (but perhaps off topic for this thread), the group that the maintenance page points to doesn't have any information on it. Wouldn't it be nice if some admin posted a message there indicating the expected duration of the maintenance?

She announced this on the site like a week previous, and here on BGG earlier still. They are NOT perfect, but I think they do a pretty good job. They only had 400 of them and Eclipse is as hot as Agricola was when it came out, so a LOT of people were just not going to get this promo, even if they knew when it was coming out. I checked the site all day every 15 -20 min and when I did get it, I just got it, nothing else so that I would not be slowed down. I a was fortunate, other times with similar things (and not at the BGG store) I have been less fortunate.... Just the way the wind blows some days.

At first I thought you were plain old wrong, because the first mention of a release time I found is here, which is clearly not last week. Hey I've been on a lot of medication lately, but miss a whole week? I don't think so. Then I realized the point you're probably trying to make is... since the release date for these promos was announced ahead of time, there was nothing that could be done to prevent this intersecting with site maintenance.

In the case of "surprise! site maintenance" sure, an unfortunate circumstance. If this was a scheduled maintenance surely the BGG Store team would have been aware of it. Possibly the site maintenance folks were even aware of the BGG Store release schedule. I'm simply saying that given a choice between A) Release promos, including extremely limited quantity ones, on the same day that the site is scheduled to be down for an extended period of time and B) Release promos on a completely regular performance day, I'd say B is a better option.

What people should do is ask the creators to release a pdf where they can print this expansion.

RGG did this with the Puerto Rico expansion. They later sold the expansion for $5. My copy was printed from the original pdf file and I still use it, even though I have the purchased one. Nothing was hurt either way. They are not trying to make money off this (giving it away instead), so it should not be too much of a concern to do it via pdf printing. Some people will want the "real thing" and other just to play it. The people who made it seem pretty cool, why not ask?

The problem with printing this particular expansion is that the tiles need to blend in with the stock tiles as much as possible. As a PNP this challenge is magnified, although surely not unpossible.

At first I thought you were plain old wrong, because the first mention of a release time I found is here, which is clearly not last week. Hey I've been on a lot of medication lately, but miss a whole week? I don't think so. Then I realized the point you're probably trying to make is... since the release date for these promos was announced ahead of time, there was nothing that could be done to prevent this intersecting with site maintenance.

In the case of "surprise! site maintenance" sure, an unfortunate circumstance. If this was a scheduled maintenance surely the BGG Store team would have been aware of it. Possibly the site maintenance folks were even aware of the BGG Store release schedule. I'm simply saying that given a choice between A) Release promos, including extremely limited quantity ones, on the same day that the site is scheduled to be down for an extended period of time and B) Release promos on a completely regular performance day, I'd say B is a better option.

The odd part was, the BGG Store site was never down when the rest of the site was down for maintenance. So I'm not sure why they had to wait in the first place.

At first I thought you were plain old wrong, because the first mention of a release time I found is here, which is clearly not last week. Hey I've been on a lot of medication lately, but miss a whole week? I don't think so. Then I realized the point you're probably trying to make is... since the release date for these promos was announced ahead of time, there was nothing that could be done to prevent this intersecting with site maintenance.

In the case of "surprise! site maintenance" sure, an unfortunate circumstance. If this was a scheduled maintenance surely the BGG Store team would have been aware of it. Possibly the site maintenance folks were even aware of the BGG Store release schedule. I'm simply saying that given a choice between A) Release promos, including extremely limited quantity ones, on the same day that the site is scheduled to be down for an extended period of time and B) Release promos on a completely regular performance day, I'd say B is a better option.

The odd part was, the BGG Store site was never down when the rest of the site was down for maintenance. So I'm not sure why they had to wait in the first place.

At first I thought you were plain old wrong, because the first mention of a release time I found is here, which is clearly not last week. Hey I've been on a lot of medication lately, but miss a whole week? I don't think so. Then I realized the point you're probably trying to make is... since the release date for these promos was announced ahead of time, there was nothing that could be done to prevent this intersecting with site maintenance.

In the case of "surprise! site maintenance" sure, an unfortunate circumstance. If this was a scheduled maintenance surely the BGG Store team would have been aware of it. Possibly the site maintenance folks were even aware of the BGG Store release schedule. I'm simply saying that given a choice between A) Release promos, including extremely limited quantity ones, on the same day that the site is scheduled to be down for an extended period of time and B) Release promos on a completely regular performance day, I'd say B is a better option.

The odd part was, the BGG Store site was never down when the rest of the site was down for maintenance. So I'm not sure why they had to wait in the first place.

Because the announcement regarding time was made on BGG? If there was a matching announcement on the geek store page I missed it, but I certainly don't have the time or inclination to hit refresh every five (or 20) minutes.

You can take my game… when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the board!

chuckhazard wrote:

minionhunter wrote:

What people should do is ask the creators to release a pdf where they can print this expansion.

RGG did this with the Puerto Rico expansion. They later sold the expansion for $5. My copy was printed from the original pdf file and I still use it, even though I have the purchased one. Nothing was hurt either way. They are not trying to make money off this (giving it away instead), so it should not be too much of a concern to do it via pdf printing. Some people will want the "real thing" and other just to play it. The people who made it seem pretty cool, why not ask?

The problem with printing this particular expansion is that the tiles need to blend in with the stock tiles as much as possible. As a PNP this challenge is magnified, although surely not unpossible.

I would just roll a die/dice when Exploring before drawing a tile and if you get a certain result (depending on total # of hexes) use the Supernova tile. Printed on flat paper wouldn't be the prettiest, but it could work. The current images in the Supernova gallery would suffice. An option if you are desperate anyway....

The production of Hoffman lenses is incumbent upon all true scientists

The tallest mountains, the darkest forests, the deepest deserts, the oldest books, there you will find the stone.

chuckhazard wrote:

minionhunter wrote:

chuckhazard wrote:

Releasing new promos on the same day as bgg site maintenance was probably not a great idea. When I came around to find out when the promos would be made available, the site was down.

On a related note (but perhaps off topic for this thread), the group that the maintenance page points to doesn't have any information on it. Wouldn't it be nice if some admin posted a message there indicating the expected duration of the maintenance?

She announced this on the site like a week previous, and here on BGG earlier still. They are NOT perfect, but I think they do a pretty good job. They only had 400 of them and Eclipse is as hot as Agricola was when it came out, so a LOT of people were just not going to get this promo, even if they knew when it was coming out. I checked the site all day every 15 -20 min and when I did get it, I just got it, nothing else so that I would not be slowed down. I a was fortunate, other times with similar things (and not at the BGG store) I have been less fortunate.... Just the way the wind blows some days.

At first I thought you were plain old wrong, because the first mention of a release time I found is here, which is clearly not last week. Hey I've been on a lot of medication lately, but miss a whole week? I don't think so. Then I realized the point you're probably trying to make is... since the release date for these promos was announced ahead of time, there was nothing that could be done to prevent this intersecting with site maintenance.

I may have been wrong about BGG, but on the BGG Store site she said it the weekend when the playoffs were going on, that Sunday I think. The announcement is gone. It was something like "I might do it tomorrow, but the way things are going with me it will likely be Monday the 30th." It also had some stuff about delays in shipping due to overwhelming amounts of recent orders. Though since it was erased, there is no way I can prove it.... Overall you got the point, timing was not linked, just two things happening at the same time.

The production of Hoffman lenses is incumbent upon all true scientists

The tallest mountains, the darkest forests, the deepest deserts, the oldest books, there you will find the stone.

chuckhazard wrote:

minionhunter wrote:

What people should do is ask the creators to release a pdf where they can print this expansion.

RGG did this with the Puerto Rico expansion. They later sold the expansion for $5. My copy was printed from the original pdf file and I still use it, even though I have the purchased one. Nothing was hurt either way. They are not trying to make money off this (giving it away instead), so it should not be too much of a concern to do it via pdf printing. Some people will want the "real thing" and other just to play it. The people who made it seem pretty cool, why not ask?

The problem with printing this particular expansion is that the tiles need to blend in with the stock tiles as much as possible. As a PNP this challenge is magnified, although surely not unpossible.

OK, My copy is still waiting at B&B for the "February" release of Cyclades Hades. It would be so tempting to just pay the fine and have it shipped to me now, but I've waited this long....